This recipe is a specialty of Umbria in Italy according to Julia della Croce and comes from her cookbook “Umbria.” I like to make this in the fall using local grapes from our farmer’s market. I “tweaked” the original recipe just for fun! The beauty of the dish is that it’s so easy to put together and cooks up in short order. Julia della Croce has a great website called Forktales you might be interested in checking out! Slice up some crusty bread and ecco la cena (here’s dinner)!
Makes 4 Servings
8 sweet Italian pork sausages (without fennel)
¼ cup each water & dry red wine + 1 Tbsp. wine for finishing the sausages
¾ lb. seedless black or red grapes, stripped from their stems, preferably local in season grapes
EVOO for frying
Place a large frying pan over medium heat; add 1 Tbsp. EVOO, then add the sausages, browning on all sides. If the sausages have rendered more than a couple of teaspoons of fat, remove the excess. Deglaze the pan with the ½ cup mixed water and wine, adding more of each if you like. When the juices have reduced to almost a few tablespoons, add the grapes; simmer for 15 minutes or so until they cook but do not break down too much; drizzle the remaining tablespoon of wine over, simmer for a minute or so. Place the sausages and grapes on a warmed platter and serve immediately.
